Luke Skywalker has faced some of the most dangerous villains in Star Wars, but his greatest battles have rarely been about who is strongest with a lightsaber. Return of the Jedi put Luke through the ultimate test when he confronted Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine aboard the second Death Star. Palpatine had sinister plans for the young Jedi, desiring Luke to surrender to his anger, kill his father, and take Vader’s place at his side.
Luke ultimately rejected the Emperor, throwing away his lightsaber rather than allowing himself to become another Sith apprentice. Vader subsequently sacrificed himself to save his son, seemingly killing Palpatine and allowing Luke to leave the Death Star, believing the Emperor was finally gone. We now know that wasn’t exactly the end of Palpatine, thanks to his eventual and controversial return in The Rise of Skywalker, but Luke never lived to see the Emperor’s resurrection on Exegol. That doesn’t mean he never saw his greatest enemy again.
Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Personality Quiz Which Sci-Fi Hero Are You Most Like? Paul Atreides · Captain Kirk · Princess Leia · Ellen Ripley · Max Rockatansky
Five iconic heroes. Five completely different ways of facing an impossible universe. One of them shares your instincts, your values, and your particular way of refusing to back down. Eight questions will tell you which one.
🏜️Paul Atreides
🖖Capt. Kirk
✊Princess Leia
🔦Ellen Ripley
🔥Max Rockatansky
01
How do you lead when the stakes couldn’t be higher? The way you lead under pressure is the most honest thing about you.
02
What is your greatest strength in a crisis? The quality that keeps you alive when everything else fails.
03
What is the thing you’d sacrifice everything else for? Your deepest motivation is your truest compass.
04
How do you relate to the people around you? Who you are to others under pressure is who you really are.
05
You’re facing a threat that no one else believes is real. What do you do? How you respond when you’re the only one who sees it defines everything.
06
What has your heroism cost you personally? Every hero pays. The question is what — and whether they’d pay it again.
07
How do you feel about the rules of the world you’re in? Every hero has a relationship with the system. What’s yours?
08
When everything is on the line, what keeps you going? The answer is the most honest thing about you.
Your Hero Has Been Identified Your Sci-Fi Hero Is…
Your answers point to the iconic sci-fi hero who shares your instincts, your values, and your particular way of facing the impossible.
Arrakis · Dune
Paul Atreides
You carry a weight most people would crumble under — the knowledge of what you’re capable of, and the burden of what you might have to become.
You see further ahead than others and you plan accordingly, even when the vision frightens you.
You are driven by loyalty to your people and a sense of destiny you didn’t ask for but can’t escape.
Paul Atreides is not simply a hero — he is someone who understands the cost of power and chooses to bear it anyway.
That gravity, that willingness to carry what others won’t, is exactly you.
USS Enterprise · Star Trek
Captain Kirk
You lead with instinct, warmth, and an absolute refusal to accept a no-win scenario — because you’ve always believed there’s a third option nobody else has thought of yet.
You take the mission seriously without ever taking yourself too seriously.
Your crew would follow you anywhere, not because you demand it, but because you’ve earned it.
Kirk’s genius isn’t tactical — it’s human. He reads people, bends rules with purpose, and wills outcomes into existence through sheer conviction.
That combination of warmth, audacity, and relentless optimism is unmistakably yours.
The Rebellion · Star Wars
Princess Leia
You are the kind of person who holds the line when everyone else is losing faith — not because you’re fearless, but because giving up simply isn’t something you’re capable of.
You lead through conviction. Your voice carries because your belief is unshakeable.
You gave up everything ordinary the moment you chose the cause, and you’ve never looked back.
Leia is not a supporting character in her own story — she is the moral centre of the entire rebellion.
That same fierce, principled, unbreakable core is what defines you.
The Nostromo · Alien
Ellen Ripley
You are not reckless, not grandiose, and not particularly interested in being anyone’s hero — you just refuse to stop when it matters.
You see threats clearly, you document the truth even when no one listens, and when the time comes you handle it yourself.
Ripley’s heroism is earned, not performed. She doesn’t have a speech — she has a flamethrower and a plan.
You share her composure under the worst possible pressure, and her refusal to pretend the monster isn’t there.
When it counts, you don’t flinch. That’s everything.
The Wasteland · Mad Max
Max Rockatansky
You have been through fire that would break most people — and what came out the other side is something the world underestimates at its peril.
You don’t ask for help, don’t need validation, and don’t wait for anyone to tell you the rules no longer apply.
Your loyalty, when it finally arrives, is absolute — but it’s earned in silence and tested in action, not in words.
Max is not a nihilist. He is someone who lost everything and found, against his will, that he still has something worth protecting.
That bruised, stubborn, ultimately human core is exactly yours.
Spoilers ahead for Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge — Echoes of the Empire #5.
Luke Skywalker Faces Emperor Palpatine Again in ‘Echoes of the Empire’
A spread from Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge — Echoes of the Empire #5.Image via Marvel Comics
Marvel‘s Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge — Echoes of the Empire #5 brings Luke face-to-face with Palpatine once more, although the Emperor hasn’t somehow returned from the dead early… again. While exploring Batuu alongside Leia, Luke suddenly encounters the Sith Lord and immediately ignites his lightsaber. Palpatine taunts him with the familiar warning that fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, and hate leads to suffering, but Luke quickly realizes something is wrong. Palpatine isn’t actually there.
The Emperor is a hallucination caused by Grimtaash, the enormous creature Luke and Leia encounter during their search for a mysterious Force relic. Grimtaash’s pheromones cause its victims to hallucinate, meaning Palpatine’s appearance offers a fascinating glimpse at what still frightens Luke after the events of Return of the Jedi. Even after watching Vader seemingly kill the Emperor, Palpatine remains buried somewhere in Luke’s fears. The realization also allows Luke to overcome the creature’s influence. Instead of fighting Palpatine again, he recognizes that the Emperor cannot possibly be standing before him and begins piecing together what Grimtaash is doing.
It’s a brief reunion, but a meaningful one considering how important Palpatine was to Luke’s final test in the original trilogy. Luke already proved he could resist the Emperor when it mattered most. Echoes of the Empire gives him another opportunity to face the man who nearly turned him to the dark side, and this time, Luke knows immediately that he doesn’t have to fight him at all.
Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge — Echoes of the Empire #5 is on sale now. Stay tuned at Collider for more.
